Darvin Ham’s Lakers ‘excavation’ reaches new depths with loss to Jazz

Ten games into the Lakers season and their coach Darvin Ham still is viewing his team with an eye towards the big picture.

And, frankly, why shouldn’t he?

With ownership and management’s support and general understanding of the Lakers’ predicament, Ham can — as he put it — continue “this excavation process of building” the team back into a winner.

But 10 games into the season, the questions shouldn’t be about support. They should, instead be about just how long and how deep this “excavation” is going to go.

For the second time in four days — the Utah Jazz dominated, beating the Lakers 139-116 in a game that wasn’t truly close ever in the second half.

The Lakers are now 2-8 — the same record the 17-win 2015-16 team had through its first 10.

There were significant reasons to think that Monday night in Salt Lake City wasn’t going to be the night where the Lakers would actually start to dig themselves out of the hole they’re in.

LeBron James’ sore left foot kept him off the court on the second night of a back-to-back. Patrick Beverley missed his second-straight game with an illness, and as if things weren’t hard enough, a third starter, Lonnie Walker IV, also came down with a non-COVID virus that has been ripping through the Lakers’ locker room.

James’ absence combined with Anthony Davis’ dissatisfaction after his quiet second half against Cleveland on Sunday has to have partially shifted Ham’s big-picture outlook to more pressing, urgent matters.

Davis didn’t speak to the media after taking just two shots in the second half Sunday. In the loss to Utah on Friday, Davis only attempted four shots in the second half.

“If a guy says he wants more touches and he’s of the caliber of Anthony Davis, then yeah, my ears are going to perk up and I’m going to see how I can get him the ball more,” Ham said. “I’m also going to communicate with his teammates, the guys who have the ball in their hands, to look for him more.

“…It’s, again, something I’m happy was said. I don’t take it as any sign of disrespect. I just think he’s expressing his willingness and his hunger to want to help the team more. And be more of a threat on that side of the ball. I’m looking forward to giving him a heavy dose of it tonight.”

Utah Jazz forward Kelly Olynyk, right, blocks a shot by Lakers guard Austin Reaves during the first half Monday.

(Rick Bowmer / Associated Press)

It was easier to emphasize Davis with three starters absent from the rotation. Monday, he scored 29 points on a team-high 18 shots. Russell Westbrook, again coming off the bench, scored 22.

But minus 60 percent of their starting lineup, Ham needed to lean on Kendrick Nunn, Austin Reaves and Wenyen Gabriel in the starting lineup — fresh off of Ham challenging the Lakers’ role players to step up and produce more consistently.

Monday, virtually everyone who played produced — defensively, though, the Lakers again faltered.

Without Beverley and Walker, the Lakers’ perimeter defense certainly took a hit, the Jazz scoring easily just like they did Friday in Los Angeles.

Ham said James hoped to play and that Monday’s absence wasn’t strictly because the team is on a back-to-back.

“It’s nothing structurally wrong with the foot. It’s just, it gets irritated,” Ham said. “But he’s stepped on people’s feet here and there the last couple of games and he’s tried to manage it the best he can. And we saw tonight as a good opportunity to just rest it.”

The plans for future back-to-back games remain fluid, Ham said.

It’s been part of James’ relatively rough start to the season.

“Well he hasn’t been scoring as much as he would probably like, and the rest of us as well. But he and I had a great one-on-one conversation this morning at breakfast,” Ham said. “But I got confidence in the kid. For him to be managing his foot and viral infection and 20 years of miles driven throughout this league, and to still come and be in peak performance — that type of shape. He really wants to be out there.

“He’s not one of those guys where you say, ‘Oh we’re thinking about sitting you tonight,’ and ‘OK, great.’ He waited up until the day of the game to decide whether or not he’s gonna play tonight. So that just shows you the care factor he has for himself and how he wants to represent this franchise. But I trust him.”